At Home With You
by Momo Taishou
Summary: A startling discovery, followed by Gibbs' reactions to the team's cases. Basically, a two-part prologue followed by reactions to each episode. Tiva, McAbby, Jibbs
1. Prologue Part 1

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs stepped out of his car and onto his driveway. He walked along the walkway toward the front door, and bent down to pick up the paper bag in front of it before walking inside.

For the past two months there had been a bag of takeout sitting on his front porch when he arrived home from work. At first he had been sure it was Abby sending him the food, as she was undoubtedly worried about how he was coping with Jenny's death, but knew better than to directly confront him about taking care of himself. It wasn't for another week that he discovered that the food had not been sent by Abby.

Gibbs walked through the automatic doors into Abby's lab, where he found her deep in conversation with McGee, who had been visiting her very often since the team was split up. They didn't hear him enter, so he was able to catch part of their conversation.

"I know Abbs, but what can we do?"

"I don't know! That's why I'm asking _you_!"

"Well, he can't be doing too bad, right? I mean, he seems okay…"

"McGee! Are you blind!? Our fearless leader, the one and only Silver-Haired Fox has clearly been hit hard by the Director's death! I bet he eats regular meals even less than he used to! Come to think of it, I haven't even seen him eat a snack! He must-"

"Abby!" McGee interrupted, "I'm pretty sure Gibbs is eating; he is alive, after all."

"But he's Gibbs! He runs on coffee and psychic power! But he'll eventually run out! Well, maybe not of coffee, but-"

"Abby!"

"Sorry," she leaned into his chest and sighed, "I'm just worried about him."

"Me too, Abby," he put his arms around her, "Me too."

Gibbs turned around and went back to the bullpen, leaving Abby and McGee to each other. He had realized that Abby couldn't have been the one sending the food, because she obviously didn't know about it at all. But now, he had to find out who had actually sent it. He was able to eliminate Tony and Ziva because of location and access, and McGee obviously didn't know about it either. Ducky would have just told him outright to eat and handed him some food, so who could it be? He sent his team home, then left the office himself. He was going to figure out who would take such an effort to make sure he was well.

When he arrived home, there was yet another bag in front of his door. This one he picked up with a pair of latex gloves and set down carefully on the table in his kitchen. He removed the contents, six small containers of Chinese food, and searched the bottom of the bag for a receipt. He couldn't find one, but when inspecting the containers, noticed the words 'Red Dragon' printed on the bottom of each, along with an address.

He grabbed his keys and drove to the restaurant where the food had come from. The manager was hesitant until Gibbs flashed his NCIS badge. She then told him that the person sending the food was a woman who always ordered over the phone, but that was all she knew.

The next day, Gibbs gave Agent Keating the Red Dragon's phone number and told him to pull up the phone records. Keating commented that one number had been calling the restaurant every day for the past couple of months. He gave Gibbs the address of the place where the number was registered, which consisted of a building number and apartment number. He then asked him why he needed it, but Gibbs was already gone.

He arrived at a ritzy-looking apartment complex about two hours later and walked into the lobby. The man at the front desk greeted him with 'welcome' and a statement about the apartments being the most exclusive in the region. Gibbs pulled out his badge and asked where apartment 1067 was, and the man immediately started advocating for the innocence of its resident in whatever matter NCIS could be investigating.

"I insist, sir, you must have the wrong person. Ms. Jeffreys is incapable of anything criminal!"

"Relax. She's not in any trouble; I just need to talk to her."

The man gave in and handed Gibbs a map of the building, pointing at the location of number 1067.

Gibbs knocked on the door of the tenth floor apartment and waited for this 'Ms. Jeffreys' to open the door, thinking he was fairly certain that he did not know anyone by that name.

The doorknob turned, and the door was opened by a tall woman with long grey hair.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs? Well I'll be darned!"

"Shirley?"

Shirley Taryll was a former NCIS agent who had worked with Gibbs and his team quite a few times in Europe. She was close to the same age as Ducky, and hailed from the south, as was apparent by her accent.

"Oh, it's been so long! Come in, come in!"

Gibbs followed her, slightly confused, into the apartment. She directed him to sit down as she brought him some coffee from the kitchen.

"Well, it certainly has been a long time, hasn't it? How are you doing?"

"You live here?"

Unfazed by his ignorance of her question, she answered, "Yes. Well, no. I live next door."

This just added to Gibbs' confusion. "Well whoever lives here has been sending me takeout every night for over two months."

Shirley set down her coffee cup and sighed, then smiled.

"I should have known you'd figure it out…she said you would, but I assured her you wouldn't. Shows what I know, huh?"

"Who?"

"I come over here every day to help her out while she rests. Stubborn thing fights me about it; I told her that I'll take care of the cleaning and all that, but she feels that she has to do everything by herself."

"Who!?"

She sighed again. "Come on. She'll be angry with me for this, but I'm sure she'll get over it quickly."

She got up and motioned for Gibbs to follow her. He complied, grumbling about her being so cryptic. Not much had changed in a decade.

They stopped at a closed door, and Shirley signaled for him to be quiet before slowly and quietly opening it. They stepped in, and Gibbs saw the shape of a sleeping woman under the covers of the bed. It wasn't until he went closer that he noticed the locks of red hair sticking out.

He instantly recognized the color, the shade. It was her.

It was Jenny.


	2. Prologue Part 2

He stared, he couldn't help but stare. It was Jenny. He rushed over to the bed and ripped the covers away. He had to see her. He had to be certain it was her.

When he tossed the covers aside, she awoke and turned over, putting her face in her pillow.

"Five more minutes, Shirley," she moaned.

"Jen…"

She immediately lifted her head and sharply turned it in his direction. The look of pure shock on her face stayed for a few seconds before being replaced by a look of rage.

"Damn it, Shirley!"

"Hey, hey! Don't blame me, he found you by himself; I had nothing to do with it," she gave a big smile, "Buh-bye!"

Shirley quickly pranced out of the room and shut the door, leaving Jenny and Jethro alone. Jenny was the first to speak.

"Jethro, I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…"

"Why did you do it, Jen?"

She sighed. "Svetlana wasn't the only one after me. There's a man named Jean Lucas; he was working with her, but was after me for different reasons. He promised that as long as I was alive, he would hunt down the people I love and kill them until I gave myself up, so I 'died'."

"But you're sick! Franks said you were taking pills for it, and Ducky said you were going to die."

"No, that was my 'plan A'.I wasn't really sick, but I was planning to 'die' by disease; those pills were what caused the tests that I took to come up positive. But then I saw another opportunity when Svetlana contacted me. I called Shirley and convinced her to agree to help me fake my own death and make it look like Svetlana's men killed me. I called Franks so he could be a witness to it, but he has no idea I'm still alive. He saw me take the final bullet in my side and collapse, and assumed I was dead."

"You actually took a bullet!?"

"Well, yeah, it's not a big deal…"

"That's why Shirley comes over and helps you out, because you're hurt!"

"Jethro, it's alright! It's no big deal!"

"Yes it is! I've lost you twice, and I _won't_ lose you again. Are you making sure the wound is not infected? Is it healing right?"

"Jethro, I'm fine. If I was going to die, I would have by now."

"I can't lose you Jen; not again…I love you."

"You don't mean that…"

"Yes I do! Jenny, I loved you when we were together in Europe, and I love you now! I never stopped loving you! I lost you once when you left, and again when you 'died'." His voice began to falter, "I will _not_ lose you a third time."

"Jethro…" she embraced him and rested her head against his shoulder, "you won't have to worry about that, because I will _never _leave you again. I love you, too."

"Good."

"But I can't leave here either."

Jethro gave her an annoyed look that could only come from him.

"I can't risk it, Jethro! There are ongoing operations to take Lucas down, but until one of them succeeds, I can't risk endangering you or anyone else that I love!"

"Fine, but I'm gonna come visit you every weekend that my team's not on call."

She smiled, "I can live with that."

As their lips touched, they were aware of Shirley peeking in through a crack in the door, but didn't care in the least.

They were finally together again.


	3. Last Man Standing

Hey! So, yeah, this is my new story...hope you like it! It will hopefully be up to date episode-wise by the next episode, and definately the one after that, because the holiday break starts this weekend, so I will actually have time. Once I get up to date, I promise I will update once a week, every time a new episode is aired. So, enjoy!

* * *

It had been a month since Gibbs had last seen Jenny; a month since their reunion. With any luck, he would be seeing her again the coming weekend, he was supposed to be with her right now, but no…he had a case, and taking a few extra days of break time would look very suspicious.

* * *

_Three Days Later_

He stood outside her apartment, waiting for her to open the door. It didn't take long for her to swing it open and greet him with a kiss.

He laughed softly, almost as if it was forced, "I missed you too."

She led him inside and closed the door, then kissed him again and ran her hand through his hair. "What's wrong?" she asked, though her tone was more that of a statement than a question.

He sighed and sat down on the couch, pulling her down with him. "One of the Agents on my team betrayed us. Agent Langer."

"Oh, Jethro…"

Gibbs had told Jenny about his new team during his last visit, and she remembered Langer from her time as Director. She knew Gibbs had recommended him.

"We were on a case. The man who was killed had a connection in Tel Aviv, and one of those computer-protecting thingies that needed to be hacked."

Jenny giggled to herself at his complete lack of knowledge about technology.

"That's why Vance split up the team; so Ziva could deal with the end in Israel, and McGee could do all the computer stuff."

"What about Tony?"

He thought for a moment. "I don't know, Jen. Punishment?"

She sighed, "I'm sorry, Jethro…"

"Not your fault, Jen. It's Vance's decision."

She leaned against his arm and took his hand in hers. "So tell me more?"

"Abby was pretty upset at me for not getting the team back yet. She knows it's not exactly in my power to bring them back, but she's still persistent."

* * *

_Anything else?_

_A number._

_One, two, six?_

_One hundred and twenty six. That is the number of days that Tony, McGee and Ziva have been gone. I really didn't think you'd let it get into triple digits, Gibbs. But now it's way more. It's like a third of a whole year! I miss them!_

_Abby, you had lunch with McGee yesterday._

_It's not the same. I miss them collectively. As a group. My three musketeers!_

* * *

"She's used to my administration; I was soft on you, and you know it."

He smiled. "Oh yeah, I know it."

Jenny playfully hit his arm and asked him to keep talking.

"Well, I got McGee and Ziva back."

"Oh, really? Well you could have told me that _first_."

"I wanted to keep up the suspense."

"What suspense? I thought you were just going to bore me with a story about a dead guy!"

"Hey, I'm not Ducky!"

By this time, the two were holding on to each other laughing.

"So, Jethro, you still have to finish telling me about Langer."

"Right…" He took a breath and put his arm around Jenny, who snuggled in closer. "He betrayed us, that's really all there is too it. Agent Lee killed him, and now everything's back to how it used to be."

"Everything?"

He frowned, "Not everything…" He pulled her closer.

"But it's getting there."

"Yeah, it is."

He took her in his arms and kissed her, hoping to God that Shirley would not take that moment to knock on the door and interrupt them.


	4. Agent Afloat

Jethro sat on the end of Jenny's bed. He had arrived at her apartment almost a half-an-hour ago, and Shirley had let him in. She had since gone back to her own apartment, but Gibbs had not done anything since she left. When he walked in, Jenny had been asleep and he did not want to wake her up. So there he sat.

A picture on her dresser attracted his wandering attention, so he got up to look at it. It was of the two of them together in front of the Eiffel Tower. He studied it for awhile and remembered the moment as vividly as if it had only just happened.

"_Come on, Jethro!" she exclaimed through her giggles._

_She was pulling him by his arm toward the Tower, and he let her lead him, only pretending to resist._

"_Jen, we've been here plenty of times before, what's so special about right now?"_

"_This!" she said, right before leaning in to kiss him._

_The two stood there in a passionate embrace until both ran out of air._

"_I love you."_

_It was as they walked away that a woman ran up to them and handed them a picture._

"_I'm sorry," she explained in French, "I just could not resist taking the picture."_

_As the woman jogged away, Jenny and Jethro looked down at the photo she had given them._

He missed memories like that; he decided he would take her to Europe, as soon as he got the chance.

He moved to put the picture back, but stopped when he felt his hand brush something on the back of it. He turned it around and saw a small envelope tucked into the frame. He pulled it out and opened it.

Inside was a silver necklace with a deep green stone in the middle. He remembered giving it to her one night in Paris.

It had taken him hours to pick out a necklace; he went to every jeweler in the city trying to find the right one. As soon as he laid eyes on that particular one, however, he knew it was perfect. It was the closest he had ever seen anything come to matching Jenny's perfect eyes.

"Having fun going through my stuff?"

He turned around and saw Jenny walking toward him. "I thought you were still asleep."

She wrapped her arms around his waist. "So that's your excuse?"

He was silent.

She removed her arms and reached out to grab the picture, then set it back down where it belonged, and embraced him again. He still held the envelope and the necklace.

"Why don't you ever wear this?" he finally asked.

"Well, I did for awhile after I left...but I couldn't stop thinking about you, and every time I looked at the necklace, I was reminded of what I had left behind, so I just put it away somewhere. Honestly, I had forgotten where I put it until now."

Jethro unwrapped himself from her arms and moved behind her, holding her shoulders; silently telling her not to turn around. She knew what he was doing, so happily complied, and didn't turn around until she felt the cool metal against her skin and heard the click of the hook as Jethro fastened the necklace.

She then turned around and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips before grabbing his hand.

He smiled.

"Come on, I'll make some coffee."

A few minutes later Jenny set a mug of coffee down on the kitchen table in front of Jethro, then took a sip of her own.

"Got DiNozzo back."

She smiled and took a seat opposite him. "I thought he had a few more months on that ship?"

"Yeah, well it turns out we needed him more than the sailors."

She laughed. "You don't say."

They sat in a comfortable silence as they both sipped their coffee.

"So how did you manage to get Tony back?"

"A sailor jumped ship. Turns out the sailor wasn't who we thought, so Tony went to Cartagena to track the real guy down; found him dead. Ziva and I went out there to investigate. After we wrapped up the case, Vance decided to give me back my senior agent."

Jenny giggled, "I bet he only did it because he was tired of you hounding him about it."

"I didn't _hound _him."

She raised her eyebrows.

"I just made it clear that DiNozzo belongs on my team."

"Oh, I'm sure you did." She took another sip of coffee. "So what else?"

"Nothing else."

"I can tell there's something else."

He sipped his coffee. "I think Ziva and DiNozzo are on the verge of breaking rule twelve. That enough 'else' for you?"

"It's about time."

"They'll be breaking the rule, Jen."

She sighed, "Jethro, we both know why you made that rule in the first place. They aren't us; it could really work out for them, and you're just taking their chance away."

"I know, Jen, but I don't want either of them to go through what I did."

She reached across the table and took his hand in hers. "But even if they are like us, it's okay. That means it will work out in the end."

"Yeah, it will."

* * *

Alright, here's another one; hope you liked it! I'm now officially on Winter Break, so I will have alot more time to get caught up. I will go as fast as I can, I promise!


	5. Capitol Offense

"Are you almost here, Jethro?" asked Jenny through the phone.

"At the front door, Jen."

She hung up the phone and ran to the front door, but when she opened it, he wasn't there.

She felt a strong pair of arms grab her from behind, and quickly spun a around.

"Jethro!" she laughed, "How did you get in here?"

He smirked and kissed her. "Shirley let me in."

"Of course. Come on, I'll get you some coffee."

He smiled and followed her to the kitchen, where Shirley was rummaging through the refrigerator. She turned around upon hearing them enter.

"Ya know, Jenny, I can't find a single slice of cake in here. Didn't you still have some leftover?"

"No, Shirl, you ate it all."

"Oh, really?" she stood up and closed the refrigerator door. "Well, then, I'd better go buy some more. In fact, I will buy two; one for your refrigerator, and one for mine."

"You don't really need to buy two…"

"Oh, of course I do, silly girl." She sang, "I will be back in a few hours."

"A few hours to buy cake?" asked Jethro.

"Well, I'll be making a few other stops."

He shook his head and went over to the kitchen table to sit down.

"I'll see you two later," she chirped, "Don't get too carried away while I'm gone!"

"Goodbye, Shirley."

Jenny poured herself and Jethro each a cup of coffee, then beckoned for him to follow her into the living room, where they sat down on the couch.

"So, tell me about the latest case."

"Are you gonna make me do this every time I come over?"

"Yes. Life is so much less exciting than it used to be, I need to hear something interesting so I know the world isn't completely boring!"

"Fine. Do you remember me telling you about Patrick Kiley?"

"Yeah, he served with you, right? And isn't he a senator now?"

"Yup. Well, not any more. I just arrested him and his wife yesterday for murdering a Lieutenant Commander, who he was having an affair with."

She gave him a sympathetic look. " Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'll get over it. But for a while, I protected him."

"Jethro, everybody uses their heart to judge." She placed her hand over his heart. "Sometimes it's wrong, but you can't blame yourself for using it, because it is usually right. What messed it up was not your judgment, but Senator Kiley. People are variables, Jethro, and as much as we all want to, we can't depend on them. You just can't tell what others are thinking, you can't read their minds."

He smirked. Definitely not what she thought he would do. "I know one person whose mind I can read; and I know I can depend on her." He held her closer and kissed her.

She smiled against his lips.

"Oh, I forgot Cupcake-Gate."

"What?"

* * *

_Abby, what are you doing?_

_A boundary has been crossed. I've been violated. Nothing is sacred anymore._

_Yeah? Tell me._

_Someone stole my cupcake._

* * *

"Ziva bought Abby some sort of really fancy cupcake, but it was stolen, and she staged a whole investigation to figure out who ate it."

She laughed, "And who was it? Tony?"

"Nope. McGee."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed!"

"Yeah, nobody suspected. Well, except for Abby. But to her, _everybody_ was a suspect."

"Sounds like typical Abby."

"Yeah, everybody's getting back to normal. There's only one thing everybody's missing now."

She gave him a questioning look.

"But I don't have to miss her. Not anymore."

He kissed her. She smiled and she kissed back.

* * *

Yay for cheesy endings! Hehe, yeah, I'm sorry for any typos or errors, but I did not have time to run this by somebody to get it checked.


	6. Heartland

Jenny paced across the carpet in front of the door.

'_He should have been here two hours ago!' _she thought. She debated calling him, but then decided that if he did not get the first four messages she had left him, he probably wouldn't get the fifth either.

She heard the sound of a car pulling into the parking lot through the window that she currently had open, despite the cold air. She had opened it for just that purpose – hearing cars pull up so she could tell when Jethro arrived. She ran to the window and looked out of it to see if it was him, but all she saw was an old, but really nice, yellow car.

She sighed and sat down in the armchair that she had decided was almost equally spaced from the window and the door. She then mused about how bored she must be to have actually taken the time to figure that out. She slouched in the chair, something that she definitely had missed doing during her director days when half of her job was to look official, and picked up the now cold cup of coffee that sat on the small table next to her and took a sip.

There was a knock at the door. Since she hadn't heard any more cars pull in, she figured it was Shirley, though she thought she remembered Shirley having said something about going out for the rest of the day, or something like that. '_Whatever,' _she thought,_ 'she probably changed those plans a thousand times since I last saw her.' _

She put the cup down and made the trek to the door, then opened it, but to her surprise, it was Jethro standing behind it.

"Jethro!" She was happy that he was finally there, but then she was quickly reminded of her worry at him being so late. "You're late! What took you so long?"

"Case." He simply said.

"What about the case…?" she prompted.

"Why is your window open? It's freezing!" He walked over to the window and shut it.

"I was trying to hear your car pull in so you wouldn't be able to sneak up on me like last time." She said as she walked over to stand next to him.

"I pulled in a few minutes ago."

"I didn't see your car!"

"I'm sure you did."

"No, all I saw in the last hour was a really good-looking yellow car. Looked like it might be kind of expensive."

"Yeah. That's mine."

"What? Since when?"

"Since a few hours ago."

"So that's why you were late. You were getting a new car?"

"Nope."

"Well then- You-" She gave an exasperated sigh, "You know, Jethro, I don't think it would kill you to be straightforward every once and awhile. It's just us," she joked, "Nobody else will hear."

He feigned deep thought. "I suppose I could. Just 'cause it's you." He smirked.

He then walked over to the sofa, and she followed close behind. She watched with amusement as he picked up the coffee cup on the table and took a sip. He glared at her.

"What?"

"You could have warned me that it was cold!"

She leaned toward him and put her head on his shoulder. "But that wouldn't have been fun," she whispered in his ear. "So, why were you late?"

"Case took us to Pennsylvania."

"Okay…go on…"

"The team was excited. Apparently DiNozzo looked in my file and found out that I was born in Pennsylvania."

"And…"

"We went to Stillwater. My hometown."

"Oh," she squeezed his hand, knowing that the past was not something he liked to be reminded of.

"Yeah. Saw my dad."

He hadn't told her about his father once in the few years they had been together in Europe, so she was eager to hear more.

"It was just…I grew up there. I have so many memories there. It was hard."

"Shannon?"

"Yeah. I met her at the train station the day that I left. I was eighteen."

She stroked his cheek for comfort, and was glad to see that it made him smile.

"Nothing had changed. The same people lived there, they still did the same things…it was like I was going back to when I lived there."

He talked about his father, told Jenny stories about when he was younger; all the good and the bad. She listened for hours as he retold so many moments, every once and awhile bringing a smile to his face, and to hers. Soon, it was way past dark, and he ended his reminiscence by asking her if she wanted some dinner.

"I'll cook," he offered.

She couldn't help but agree, as it had been a long time since he had cooked for her.

As he was mixing the salad, after having put the chicken in the oven, Jenny got up from the chair that she had been sitting in while she watched him, and walked up to his side.

"So, you never told me. Where'd you get the car?"

He smiled, "I was working on it when I was a kid, but I never finished it. After I left, my father fixed it up and finished it for me. He gave it to me before I left today."

"I would like to meet him some day."

"You'd like him. And I think he'd like you, too."

The timer for the oven went off. She smiled and went back to her chair, letting him finish making dinner.

* * *

Well, it's getting there. Episode 4! Hehe, I promise I'll get caught up soon. (I hope)

Reviews are much appreciated...they also make great christmas gifts! Hintety-hint-hint. ;)


	7. Nine Lives

Jenny was sitting on her couch watching the news as Shirley, who had insisted on making dinner, was trying to make hamburgers. In the middle of a boring news piece about a community even that had happened the previous day, the phone rang.

Few people ever called Jenny, since few people knew she was alive, so she assumed it was probably Jethro.

"Hey."

"Hi, Jen."

She smiled. "What's up?"

"Well, we've got a case, and I won't be able to come visit you this week."

"Oh, alright. Can you talk for a few minutes?"

He could tell she was disappointed. "Yeah, for a little bit."

"Okay. Tell me about your case."

"Two marines died. We had a suspect, but the second marine died while he was in custody."

"Is that it?"

"So far. Well, there's Abby's mold sex, but-"

"Abby's _what_?"

"Mold sex. She found some mold on a rope, and she said it was having sex. She's very excited about it."

Jenny was silent for a moment. "Only Abby could be excited about mold having sex…"

"Yeah, only Abby."

There was a pause.

"So what else is going on?

"Ziva's going back to visit Israel soon."

"Do you know why? I mean, she just got back."

"Dunno. She hasn't told anyone, and DiNozzo's been trying to figure it out all week."

"He's jealous."

"Thinks she might be going to visit a boyfriend or something," he confirmed.

"What do you think?"

"I think rule twelve's about to change."

He was sure she was smirking right now, even if he couldn't see it through the phone.

"That might be a wise decision."

"We'll see. Hey, I have to go, but I promise I will call you again later, okay?

"Alright, I'll talk to you soon."

She hung up the phone, and went back to watching the television. It was times like these when she really missed being the director; but it wasn't really the job she missed. It was the people.

* * *

Blehhh. I really don't like this one, but I couldn't really figure out how to make it better. I've been sick the last few days, so my brain is still trying to catch up. :P


	8. Murder Two Point Oh

It came as a great relief to Jenny when Jethro came to her door. She had been worried about him after he had told her about his current case with the videos being posted online, and she hadn't seen anything about it on the news, which she knew either meant it was nothing – which she knew it wasn't- or an agent had been killed, and SecNav didn't want the country to know yet.

Thankfully he used the key that Shirley had apparently given him without telling her, and barged into her apartment.

She decided, for now, to conceal the happiness caused by knowing he was alright.

"You know," she pointed out, not bothering to get up from her chair, "you could have told me you had a key before just walking in. Something like that could scare a person; I might have shot you."

"Really? If you had a gun to shoot me with, then maybe."

"I could've stabbed you."

"Where's your knife?"

She smirked, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

That got his mind racing. He remembered one day when the two of them had been undercover in Russia and a fight had broken out. He had been worried about her, as she didn't have her gun. 'Alisa McGavin', as was her undercover identity's name, was a peaceful ambassador. That meant no visible weapons, and a gun couldn't have been hidden unless she was wearing her coat, which, of course, she hadn't been. But he had no idea that 'no visible weapons' didn't mean she didn't have one on her. He looked over to her for a second, after taking down both men that had lunged toward him, and saw her pull a knife out from between her-

"Are you alright, Jethro?" She asked with a touch of humor in her voice, knowing full well what he was thinking about.

"Yeah. Fine."

She raised her eyebrows.

He replied by shrugging and walking away into the kitchen.

"Hey! Where are you going?" She was disappointed that her teasing hadn't fazed him as much as she hoped it would.

At his lack of an answer, she got up and followed him into the kitchen, where she found him pouring a cup of coffee from the pot she had made earlier that day.

"It's a bit cold; it's been out here for a few hours."

"S'okay."

"You could have just stopped at your usual place on the way here."

"Eh."

"Unless…"

"Unless?"

"Unless you like _my_ coffee better."

He didn't answer.

"You _do_ like mine better!"

"So what if I do?"

"Well you never mentioned it before."

"Hm."

"Oh come on! That's it? Just a grunt?"

"Fine. Yeah, Jen, I love your coffee. I didn't tell you 'cause you always said you hated making coffee in the morning."

"Oh…" She hadn't thought about that before. "Well I like making it for you."

"That doesn't make sense."

"It does, Jethro." She walked out of the room.

He realized what she meant, and followed her back into the living room, taking a seat next to her.

"Hey. I didn't-"

"I know." She put her arms around him and buried her head in his chest.

He put his coffee down and embraced her in return.

"I was worried. All you told me was that you had a deranged killer sending clues by video."

"It was all I knew."

"I know." She turned her head up to face him. "So, how did it turn out?"

"You know the kids I was telling you about?"

"The ones in the band?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we managed to figure out that the video was sent from one of them. We went in to their garage, and found the girl holding a gun to the drummer's head."

"So it was her?" She was a little bit pleased, though she would never admit it, because she had developed something against the girl after Jethro told her that she had been flirting with him.

"Nope. Drummer strapped a bomb to her and had the trigger. If she didn't do what he said, she was dead."

"But why did he do it?"

"He just wanted his fifteen minutes of fame."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. Did you see the thing on the news about the suspected unnamed terrorist."

"Mhmm."

"That was him."

She smiled. "Nice job."

He laughed. "When you thought it was the girl, you didn't ask for a motive."

"Oh." She hesitated. "I just, ah-"

"What? Have some reason not to like her?"

"Hey, you know what? You dislike people without giving a reason all the time!"

"Yeah, but _you_ don't."

"I just- I didn't- Hey, wanna find out where that knife is?"

"As much as I would love to, you're not changing the topic here."

"Damn."

She thought for sure that that would work.


	9. Collateral Damage

Jenny was sitting on her couch, sipping her hot cocoa, when a distraught-looking Gibbs burst through her door and trudged to the seat closest to the door, which to her disappointment was also the seat furthest from her. She watched as he leaned back in the cushiony chair and said nothing. Something was obviously wrong.

Soon, though, the silence got to her.

She set down her mug and walked over to him, sitting on his lap and taking his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her.

"Talk." She simply said.

There was silence for awhile after that, until he finally spoke.

"I put Langer's picture on the wall last night."

She knew right away the wall he was talking about. She knew his favorite bar; he had taken her there often before their team had left for their Europe mission so long ago. She remembered looking at the wall, and how almost every time she did, there was another addition to it. Sometimes it was someone she knew. Sometimes it was someone Jethro knew. Sometimes it was a mutual friend. In any case, she knew what effect the wall had.

She also knew what it was for. And if Jethro had put a picture of Langer on it, then it could only mean one thing…

"He wasn't the mole?"

"No." was his simple reply.

She knew he had been doubting his gut lately, because he was the one to recommend Langer, and everyone thought Langer was the mole. On one hand, she was glad to hear that it wasn't true, because now Jethro could be his confident self again. On the other hand, there was obviously something else tied to this discovery. Something she didn't know yet.

"So what's going on, Jethro?"

He sighed and put his hand on the back of her head so he could bring her head to rest against his chest. She wrapped her arms around him.

"I think it was Lee."

She looked up at him in surprise.

"Lee? Michelle Lee?" she couldn't imagine the timid lawyer being involved in something so big. Lee couldn't even cover up her relationship with Palmer, how could she cover up such a sensitive thing as being a mole?

Jethro didn't reply, but she knew to take his silence as a 'yes'.

She leaned back on him and hugged him tighter, knowing what he needed right now was comfort and sleep. She could tell he hadn't slept since at least the beginning of the case.

Hours later, they were both sleeping peacefully in each other's arms.

* * *

I'm so sorry for the delay! I've been really sick lately, and haven't been able to even look at a computer screen without getting dizzy. But I'm getting better, and I'm writing as fast as I can! Thank you all for your reviews!


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